Jean Dearden, AFL-CIO, coordinator of the Bonnie Ladin Union Skills Training Program.Robin Clark-Bennett, Labor Educator, University of Iowa Labor Center, teaches workshops on immigration and is on the board of a workers center.

Tess Ewing, moderator of the UALE list-serve, retired Labor Resource Center UMass Boston Labor Extension Coordinator, has done a lot of trainings with immigrants about rights on the job, work with WILD.

Charlie Fanning, AFL-CIO, International Department, Common Sense Economics: Globalization Guide and has worked on immigration policy.

Riahl O’Malley, co-chair of UALE Popular Education working group, United for a Fair Economy (UFE), works with worker’s centers.

Guillermo Perez, International Steelworkers, Union Representative on the UALE Executive board, president of a local chapter of LCLAA (Labor Council for Latin American Advancement).

Susan Winning, Director, Labor Education Program, UMass Lowell has been part of this working group in the past.

Victor Narro, UCLA has been involved in this committee before and is looking to get back involved. He comes out of the immigrant rights movement particularly around undocumented workers and he has worked in Vietnam to form worker centers in the free trade zones.

Maureen LaMar, CUNY would like to get more involved in the working group, works with immigrant workers and some of their faculty are involved in international labor research and may be hosting Chinese students in the future.

I. PAST WORK

Common Sense Economics: Globalization Guide Feedback - At the last UALE conference our working group gave feedback on the Common Sense Economics: Globalization Guide.

Harvest of Empire Screening and Discussion - At the last UALE conference this working group hosted a screening and discussion about the possible uses of the film Harvest of Empire.

Immigration and Globalization Issues and Language Justice - In the past this working group coordinated a UALE resolution about language justice. - Partly as a result our past advocacy, our issues have become front and center and are part of the ongoing focus of UALE.

II. UPDATES ON NEW WORK

Immigration and Globalization Program at the UN Committee on the Status of Women Mary Bellman shared how last month the AFL-CIO sponsored a Women’s Global Leadership Program alongside the United Nations (UN) Committee on the Status of Women meetings. This was the first time that women from different U.S. unions gathered for 4 days during the UN meeting. They attended workshops on globalization as well as sessions from the UN meeting, allowing participants to hear international perspectives and participate in workshops together. Mary and others involved may write up the curriculum to upload onto the Immigration and Globalization section of the UALE website.

Immigration A to Z, June 20-24, 2016, at the Illinois Federation of Teachers, 500 Oakmont Lane, Westmont, IL 60559, coordinated by the Bonnie Ladin Union Skills Training Program and the Chicago Federation of Labor. Contact Jean Dearden for more information contact: or go to: www.aflcio.org/union-skills

Common Sense Economics: Globalization Guide There is new version of Common Sense Economics: Globalization Guide. You can gain access to curriculum materials through “base camp” after you go through the T4T training.

Job Announcement: Workers’ Center Executive Director Opening at the Center for Worker Justice (CWJ) of Eastern Iowa. Tess Ewing will send the job announcement out to the list-serve.

III. NEXT STEPS

Overall Discussion: “Our work is important even if it’s getting together at the conference and keeping our resources relevant on the website.” “It makes sense to be real about what people can or can’t’ do. “

New co-chairs:Mary Bellman, expressed the need for co-chairs because she was a candidate for the Northeast Region Representative Executive for UALE. Camilo Viveiros and Guillermo Perez were voted in as co-chairs.

UALE Conference Content

- Proposals

In the past this working group has solicited workshop proposals for the UALE conference. We should continue to engage in reviewing proposals to offer our support and input around specific proposals.

- Interpretation for ConferenceMonitor implementation of language interpretation. Possibly approach the AFL-CIO for funding assistance based on the commitment for racial justice. Perhaps have a bilingual track (one on one interpretation or providing interpretation for all of the conference or more than one session at the same time might not be possible). UFE has equipment they can offer for us to use at the conference but it costs around $3,500 to get professional interpreting for more of the conference.

Outreach to Possible Community Grants This working group has pushed for more participation of community groups and workers centers. UALE awarded $1,500, through 5 grants to cover conference costs related to travel and accommodations, additionally UALE waives up to 3 registrations from each group, but outside of these 3 registrations then the cost comes out of the grant. This year for 4 regions and Canada all 5 applicants received grants. It would be good to strive for more regional balance and to expand our outreach to get more applicants. Invite people who attend the UALE conference due to these grants to attend this working group. Encourage community groups and worker’s centers in our working group to be involved in our working group. We agreed as a group to support Guillermo’s work on the Executive Board to recruit for these grants and ensure they are good experiences for participants.

Upload more curricula onto the UALE website & post more to the UALE list-serves- Make the website more active by adding more content related to our working group. Some demonstration materials had been lost with website migrations. We should take efforts to upload more to the website. In the past the UALE website was more active and it has been seen as a resource. Tess Ewing can help us upload curricula.

- Increase the frequency of posts to our work group list-serve (). Post to the list about our activities, which could be simple postings about what we are doing.